Perovskite metal oxide thin films, such as Pr0.3Ca0.7MnO3 (PCMO), exhibit reversible resistance change when an electric pulse is applied. A PCMO thin film has been grown on both epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) and partial epitaxial Pt substrates via pulsed laser abrasion (PLA) technique, Liu et al., Electric-pulse-induced reversible resistance change effect in magnetoresistive films, Applied Physics Letters, 76, 2749, 2000; and Liu et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,204,139, granted Mar. 20, 2001, for Method of switching the properties of perovskite materials used in thin film resistors. which describes the resistance change which occurred when electric pulses are applied at room temperature to PCMO thin films. The PCMO thin films were deposited on both epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) and partial epitaxial Pt substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The polarity of the electric pulse determines the character of the resistance change, i.e., increase or decrease. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) polar figures confirm the epitaxial properties of PCMO thin films.
An electrically programmable resistance, non-volatile memory device, operable at room temperature, was fabricated using PCMO epitaxially grown on YBCO on LaAlO3, as published by Liu et al. This type of memory may be reversibly programmed by a reversed short electrical pulse. The memory cell is able to produce either single bit or multi-bit information. However, the PCMO must be in crystalline form, which requires that the PCMO must be grown on a specific bottom electrode, such as YBCO, which is not compatible to the state-of-the-art silicon integrated circuit technology. The growth, or crystallization, temperature is relatively high, e.g., >700° C., which renders incorporation of the device into state-of-the-art integrated circuit fabrication very complex. In addition it is not possible to cover the full circuit area with a single grain of PCMO. As the properties of a memory cell which is fabricated on a single grain PCMO crystal and the properties of a memory cell which is fabricated on a multi-grain PCMO crystal, which covers the grain boundary area, are not the same, circuit yield and memory performance problems will occur.